Fungus or root rot?

[Juliann2023]

I’m panicking. We got this from my brother 20 years ago. Can I save it?

5E7AF0BF-9AF9-4170-9D28-977FE41137D2.jpeg (250.19 KiB) Viewed 3318 times

[Steve Johnson]

A couple of things -- see this first:

viewtopic.php?t=43819

All cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti. Cacti and succulents have different growing requirements, so it's helpful to know that your plant is in fact a succulent. You'll get better advice by posting in the Succulent Growing Help forum. I'm one of the moderators, so I can move your thread over there if you'd like.

[Juliann2023]

Yea please… that’d be great. I appreciate it

[Steve Johnson]

Yea please… that’d be great. I appreciate it

Done deal.

[Steve Johnson]

Just wanted to follow up with you on a couple of things...

Although my expertise is with desert cacti, I do have a fair amount of experience coming from my younger days when I grew cacti and succulents. The two different types of plant have one thing in common -- they need a free-draining mix. You have a great big potful of what appears to be soil and nothing more. That amount of soil takes a long time to dry out after it's watered, and your Euphorbia (I think it's an E. ammak) isn't getting nearly enough drainage and aeration to the roots. I highly recommend that you lean it out with some sort of mineral gravel -- pumice is perfect, although you can go with crushed granite poultry grit, Turface (if you're able to get it), or calcined clay cat litter. For cacti, I generally recommend a 50/50 soil-mineral gravel mix. You may not need to go quite as lean for succulents, but you still need to lean out the mix.

The other thing I noticed -- the pot may be too big for the roots. My guess is that if you unpot the Euphorbia, there won't be much of a root system. "Rule of thumb", size the pot to the roots, not the stem of the plant. Unfortunately I can't make a suggestion on the right pot size you should go with, so hopefully one of our experienced succulent growers can give you some advice on that.

[jerrytheplater]

The pot might be so large to keep the plant from tipping over. If so, you can pot in a smaller pot and then place the smaller pot in a larger pot full of gravel or stones to provide weight.

[Steve Johnson]

The pot might be so large to keep the plant from tipping over. If so, you can pot in a smaller pot and then place the smaller pot in a larger pot full of gravel or stones to provide weight.

Good idea!